Monday, December 28, 2015

Unsurprisingly 'Star Wars' makes a billion dollars in 12 days

From ew, Talk about making the jump to lightspeed. After only two weekends in theaters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens has officially joined the $1 billion club — at a record-breaking rate. In just 12 days, The Force Awakens has raked in an estimated $1.09 billion dollars worldwide, making it the fastest movie ever to hit $1 billion globally.

The Force Awakens added an estimated $153.5 million to its domestic total this weekend, earning the biggest second weekend of all time. Jurassic World, the previous record holder, only earned $106.6 million in its second weekend. Domestically, The Force Awakens has raked in a total of $545 million, surpassing The Dark Knight to become the fifth biggest domestic movie of all time — in only 10 days.Jurassic World also previously held the speed record for fastest movie to hit $500 million domestically, hitting that mark in 17 days. The Force Awakens did it in 10.

The Force Awakens’ Christmas success means that we can add a number of new broken records to its already long list of accomplishments. On Friday, The Force Awakens made $49.3 million domestically for the highest-grossing Christmas Day of all time. It also pushed Disney’s box office total past the $2 billion earnings mark domestically. The Force Awakensalready earned the biggest domestic and global debuts of all time, and it’s also had a stellar IMAX run,

As of this weekend, The Force Awakens is open in all territories except China, where it will hit theaters on Jan. 9. The Force Awakens’ global success is especially impressive considering that most of the records it’s breaking belong to Jurassic World, which had the added bonus of opening the same day in China.

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While Star Wars was, as expected, the box office champion this weekend, a number of new releases also hit theaters, and The Force Awakens’ record-breaking success, coupled with some other big debuts, made this the biggest Christmas weekend ever at the box office. Daddy’s Home topped the newcomers and blew past expectations to earn an estimated $38.8 million in 3,271 locations. The PG-rated comedy, which stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, earned a B+ CinemaScore.

David O. Russell’s Joy, which stars Jennifer Lawrence, also had an excellent weekend, opening to an estimated $17.5 million. It earned a B+ CinemaScore and opened in 2,896 locations.

Two holdovers rounded out the top five, with Sisters pulling ahead to secure fourth place with $13.88 million. The R-rated comedy, which stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, dropped less than half a percent from its $13.92 million debut last weekend, bringing its domestic total to $37.1 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip also saw a miniscule drop in its second weekend, falling about 11 percent for an estimated $12.7 million. Its domestic total is now at $39.4 million.

Some of this weekend’s other wide releases didn’t even manage to crack the top five. The NFL drama Concussion, starring Will Smith, fell just short, opening to an estimated $11 million and earning an A CinemaScore. It opened in 2,841 locations. The new Point Breakremake earned a B CinemaScore and only opened to $10.2 million in 2,910 locations. It was bested by The Big Short, which, after a successful run in limited release, expanded nationwide to 1,585 theaters and earned $10.5 million.

Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, which opened in just 100 locations with an exclusive 70 mm run, secured 10th place with an estimated $4.5 million dollars and an excellent per-theater average of $45,366. The Revenant also had a spectacular limited release debut, earning $471,000 in four theaters. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s drama, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, earned a per-theater average of $117,750, the second-best of the year.

The comparison I keep thinking of is the NRA's presumed goal (and I really don't want to talk about guns) of full gun ownership in the USA. Star Wars is the movie that EVERYBODY is seeing at least once, as literally as that can be true. And most people I know have seen it twice.